


The price to pay

by Ricksbowlegs



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Dubious Consent, Established Relationship, Glenn got Lucilled in this one, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Protective Daryl, Rick Whump, Rickyl Writers' Group, pissed off daryl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6480493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ricksbowlegs/pseuds/Ricksbowlegs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When his son's life is in danger, Rick offers anything in exchange to save him.</p><p> </p><p>*Warning for comic spoilers and possible season 7 spoilers*</p>
            </blockquote>





	The price to pay

**Author's Note:**

> New Rickyl fic. Set weeks after the season finale. 
> 
> Unbeta'd, all my mistakes. I apologize for each of them.
> 
> Not my characters.

Rage. That fire burning in his gut whenever he saw the satisfaction in that asshole’s face could only be described as such. 

Ever since that night, things had changed. Rick had changed. They all had, but Rick had changed the most. 

Maggie had blamed him for Glenn’s death. It’d been a spurt of the moment, of course, but she’d punched him while calling him a coward, breaking Rick into shreds. 

But who could blame Rick? He’d done what any parent would’ve done by begging the man to spare his son’s life when he chose him, offering anything he wanted in exchange. He hadn’t counted on Negan choosing another victim after accepting the offer. 

She did apologize after that before moving to Hilltop, taking Enid with her. Carl had wanted to follow. He still wanted to and Rick was running out of arguments to make him stay. It made Daryl want to slap the teen a bit. Rick didn’t need that shit right now.

The first time had been the hardest. Rick had begged him not to go, but he’d gone anyways. 

Daryl still didn’t know how he’d managed not to shoot the fucker right there and then to erase that gloating smirk when the leader of the saviors stopped Rick in his tracks as he attempted to walk the distance that separated him from Daryl, pulling him back by the arm against his body for a demanding kiss; a cheap display of the power he held over Rick before letting the leader go home for the week.

Rick had barely looked at him as he got in the car and sat on the passenger seat. He kept his jaw tightly shut and didn’t speak a word all the way back to Alexandria. 

It’d destroyed him, seeing Rick so defeated as he walked through the gates that first time, sporting a visible limp and keeping his gaze fixed on the ground in front of him, unable to even meet the eyes of his people; his family.

They all knew about the deal. They all understood. They even looked up at Rick for accepting it, for begging for it. It’d been his son’s life at stake and he hadn’t been given a choice, in spite of what Negan’s twisted mind believed. 

Letting Carl get brutally killed hadn’t been a choice.

Daryl had followed Rick into the house and into their room. Helped him strip, wincing at the lost weight of his lover for Negan and the saviors not only robbed them of their leader once a week but half of the scarce supplies they managed to gather as well. 

He’d kissed every expanse of pale skin uncovered to his eyes, every hand shaped bruise where Negan had used unnecessary strength to subdue an already subdued Rick, then climbed into the shower behind him where he’d knead the tense muscles on Rick’s back and washed off every remainder of Negan’s abuse, relaxing the leader before tucking him into bed. It had become their ritual; for healing, Rick had said. 

_“Please, make love to me,”_ Rick had pleaded that first time with tears in his eyes, as if it were necessary. As if it were possible that Daryl would reject him after being with Negan. 

_How Rick could even think that was beyond him._

It’d been six weeks since that first time and Rick had to go and meet Negan once more, in the same spot Daryl had picked him up the week before. 

“One more for the road?” Rick asked with a smirk. He always asked for one last session of love making right before he left. 

“Ya don’ even gotta ask,” Daryl said, bringing the younger man closer to plant a possessive kiss on that gorgeous mouth of his. 

Rick spread his thighs in invitation and Daryl climbed over his leaner form like a predator. He understood from that first time exactly what Rick needed from him. 

“Yer mine, Rick,” he huffed as he pressed his forehead against Rick’s, inhaling deeply, drowning his senses with the leader’s scent as he thrust into him, slow and deep; a steady rhythm meant to show Rick how much he loved him and who he belonged to. “Only mine.”

“Yours,” Rick whispered with tears in his eyes as he gave himself completely to the hunter.

With every possessive thrust, Rick moaned loudly, saying the hunter’s name over and over like a mantra and threading his fingers through Daryl’s hair with one hand, while the other pressed against Daryl’s muscled back, pulling him impossibly close and keeping his eyes fixed on Daryl’s face to make damn sure it was him inside him instead of someone else.

“Daryl!” Rick cried as he came, pressing his heels against Daryl’s lower back, bringing the hunter deeper as he clenched down on the thick shaft inside his channel through his orgasm. 

Daryl hadn’t come yet, but he knew Rick needed him to, so he kept thrusting, in and out, deep and hard, purposefully avoiding Rick’s over sensitized prostate until the familiar coiling feeling of his orgasm approached. A couple thrusts later he spilled deep inside Rick with a grunt and bit at the same spot on that pale shoulder where Negan had left his mark, turning it into his own. 

After that, Daryl went out to get the car ready for their ride, leaving Rick to his privacy to collect himself, hating every second that brought them closer to the moment he’d had to deliver Rick to Negan.

“It’s time,” Rick informed as he approached him twenty minutes later.

Daryl looked the younger man over, eyes stopping on his shaky hands. Rick was absolutely terrified of Negan.

“Ya don’ gotta go,” he tried one last time.

“Yes, I have to Daryl,” Rick said softly. “Don’t make it harder than it has to be.”

“Wasn’ even yer plan. Back in Hilltop, t’was my idea. My call. I should be the one payin’ fer it. Not ya or Maggie.”

Rick looked down at his boots, letting out a long sigh before looking back up. “You _are_ paying for it.”

“What? Eatin’ half a slice instead of a whole? It ain’t shit,” Daryl scoffed.

Rick shook his head. “I know this hurts you as much as me. Maybe even more.”

“Don’” Daryl huffed. “Don’ fucking try t’ comfort me. It ain’t me who’s got the shittiest part of the deal.” 

“Fine,” Rick sighed and spoke again after a long pause. “I’m running late and I need to go. Will you take me or do I have to drive myself there?”

He studied Rick for a moment, biting his lip and containing the need to yell at him.

“Why’re ya submittin’ t’im so easily? This ain’t ya,” he asked for the thousand time. And Rick answered the same way he did every time he asked.

“You know why, Daryl,” Rick replied, defeat heavy in his tongue. 

It’d been weeks since that first time and Rick was getting used to it. And that’s what bothered Daryl the most, seeing their leader lose his will to fight and surrendering to that man so easily.

“Cuz yer a coward?” Daryl bitterly spat, trying to stir some reaction from the younger man. He knew how much those words would hurt Rick and how unfair they were, but he couldn’t take any more of the situation. It was too fucked up.

“Right,” Rick nodded, breaking eye contact. “But I have a son and a daughter to protect. I cannot risk their lives. They are what matter. Not me. You understand that, don’t you?”

No. He didn’t understand.

“So ya don’ matter, now?” Daryl huffed angrily. “How can ya say that shit t’me, Rick?”

“You know what I mean. If I don’t do this, he’ll come here and kill Carl like he promised,” the leader said, finally showing some emotion.

He knew that, of course. Negan had been clear in his threat if Rick so much as failed him once. The words still rang loudly in their memory. 

“I won’ let that happen.”

“How exactly? We are outnumbered and outgunned, Daryl. We have no choice. _I_ have no choice.” Tears welled up in Rick’s eyes as he spoke those words with a trembling voice that broke at the end. 

Daryl cursed under his breath and pulled Rick against his chest as he trembled. “m’ sorry, love, I know. But the Hilltop, the kingdom…they’re willing to help us. They’ll join us against those pricks. But we need ya with us Rick. We need ya t’ fight too. S’ all of us against ‘em. We can only do it t’gether.”

“They’re more,” Rick said weakly. “We can’t.”

“It don’ matter. We’ll win,” he said with conviction, although deep down, Daryl knew he was making the same mistake that led them to this mess in the first place. 

Rick sighed as he pulled away to meet his eyes. “I cannot risk losing Carl or Judith, nor you, or anybody else. We have a safe deal. It works. Let’s leave it at that. Let’s not get any more of our people killed.”

“It ain’t working fer me. ‘Sides, what’ll happen when we run out o’ shit? When we don’ h’ve even half t’ give ‘em?” Daryl huffed, gripping Rick’s hips, intently staring into his eyes. 

Rick tensed in his arms and lowered his chin. “Don’ even say that.”

Daryl lifted Rick’s chin with his fingers, searching for his gaze. “Why’re ya so afraid of ‘im?”

Rick frowned in disbelief. “Why aren’t you?”

“’cuz he ain’t shit, n’ we’re gonna win. We’ll win, Rick. Ain’t no need fer ya t’ keep givin’ yerself to ‘im.”

Rick smiled and reached over to caress the archer’s face. “You are braver than I am. You are afraid of nothing, are you?”

“Nah,” he said, pulling Rick closer and pressing their foreheads together, “m’ terrified of losin’ ya.”

They kissed shortly and when they parted Rick took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“Even if we do attack them, we need to act as if nothing’s changed for now. Like the deal still stands.”

He knew that, of course. They weren’t ready yet. They would be, but not yet.

“We’ll win,” Daryl assured in a tight voice. Rick nodded, smiling sadly. Daryl pulled him closer again and wrapped his arms tightly around the shaky form, whispering against his ear. “I love ya, Rick. Ya ain’t a coward. No one thinks ya are.”

He drove Rick to the meeting spot, cursing to himself all the way there. And as he walked Rick toward Negan and met the man’s loathsome gaze, Daryl made a promise to himself to kill him with his own hands before this was all over. 

That bastard would pay for everything he’d done to Rick. Daryl would make sure of that.


End file.
